Former Liverpool midfielder Dietmar Hamann has revealed that he once lost £288,400 pounds ($445,853) in a single bet on a cricket match between South Africa and Australia. Hamann became a big gambler in an attempt to block out the stress of problems in his personal life and the German international hit rock bottom when he squandered the vast sum in a spread bet on Australia's score in a Test against the South Africans.
"I was spread betting because it requires more thought, and the more my brain was engaged the less I thought about the devastation I was feeling inside," Hamann said, writing in his autobiography 'The Didi Man', which is being serialised in the Daily Mirror.